Tom Druitt

Tom Druitt was born in Gloucestershire in 1978 and grew up in Sussex. He attended Michael Hall School and the University of Stirling, graduating in 2002 with a BA (Honours) in Politics, Philosophy and Economics.

After leaving University Tom was commissioned at The Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and served as a Reserve Officer in the 51st Highland Regiment (Volunteers), based in Stirling. Tom moved back to Sussex to take a position at Swanborough House Neuro-Rehabilitation Centre, Brighton, in 2004, and served as the Manager there from 2005 to 2006. During this period he became increasing frustrated about the inability of public transport to provide a viable solution to the nation's transport needs and the challenge of climate change, and began gathering ideas for a new type of bus company, The Big Lemon.

With no prior industry knowledge or experience, this was a project driven by customer experience, and the concept quickly became popular. The Big Lemon was the first bus company in the UK to run all its vehicles on 100% biodiesel from locally-sourced waste cooking oil, and won the Dandelion Award for sustainable business in 2009.

The Big Lemon came 8th in the RBS SE100 Index of social businesses in 2009, in April 2010 Tom was elected a Fellow of the RSA, and in December 2010 The Big Lemon won the ‘Best Sustainability Initiative’ Award at the Brighton & Hove Public Service Awards. Recently The Big Lemon won 'Best Social Enterprise' at the EU's 2011 Ethiconomy Awards.